When you surf the internet on your Android phone or Windows run laptop, you may find that the internet isn't as free as you though it was. Though we tend to think of the internet as 'limitless information', the truth is that there are forces at work to try and limit it! Sometimes its something like a company firewall that keeps Facebook and YouTube off of our minds for the duration of the workday (understandable), but sometimes firewalls are used to filter out websites and information as a kind of passive propaganda - keeping information from the people. Software to unblock sites can fix this problem regardless, but you need to know more about it.

Where can you use it?

I currently live in China and have asked several VPN services about the Middle East. VPN services are available in both of these regions. Why do I mention this? Well, some countries from Asia and The Middle East have some serious agendas regarding religion and politics of their people. The idea of freedom of thought, speech, and information just doesn't fly over there, so there are some of the best brains in the business working to block sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter - vehicles of information freedom.

The point is that if VPN services can work is some of the most tightly restriction parts of the world, then they can certainly work on your home or office network. Though there will more likely be some blocked VPN services once you go overseas to these regions, there are so many VPN services out there that they can't just block them all.

What was that about VPN services?

Oh yeah, a VPN is a virtual private network. It's like a mini internet, or a private network of servers that only allows members to access it. Though data encryption and VPN tunneling, it's able to block all outside users from seeing what information is being passed between a user and the internet (or another user).

There are many types of PVN 'protocols' and data encryption out there, but for Android and Windows, you only need to worry about a few. For Android, if you're in a place that isn't going to actively try to hack or invade your private data, then a PPTP software to unblock sites is a cheap, fast, and reliable solution. If you're worried about the prying eyes of your boss, government, or other users, then L2TP will provide better encryption and privacy (called IPSec).

For Windows, PPTP and L2TP are also an option, but most users are going to go with OpenVPN or SSTP because of the better security features. OpenVPN is not a Microsoft product, but with a small download, you can use this software on your Windows laptop or computer. SSTP however, is a Microsoft product, and you'll see that Windows 7 and Vista come ready to use it. Not all VPN services will have SSTP available, but if you use a service that does have the VPN protocols available, and have Win 7 or Vista on your laptop, they will certainly recommend SSTP VPN for Windows, as do I.